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Times are tough, especially if you're associated with Manchester United, be it as a fan or an official. The Red Devils lost at Anfield for the first time in 5 years and what followed it was something the pundits were expecting. Indeed, we are talking about the sacking of Jose Mourinho. This is red-hot, the "Special One" is sacked!
And once again, it feels like the values of the club have been sacrificed. Probably, this time the officials regulating the club were wrong. This was not the right time to sack the manager, to be honest. Firstly, this has cost the club a huge fortune and secondly, there are very few good managers (barring Zinedine Zidane) available till the end of the season.
But the question that follows is: Will the next manager deliver or will he meet the same fate? For the time being, the club officials will hire a caretaker as is the case with Real Madrid; the club who has hired Santiago Scolari as the successor of the sacked Julen Lopetegui. There could be a number of reasons why they sacked him (Jose Mourinho) but it has to be the Board who is responsible for this situation.
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The counter-argument might say that this was the famous third-year syndrome of this manager or he was quite rigid in his approach or his ego was too big for players like Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez to digest. Nevertheless, the core of the matter is- Did the board back him?
Backing from the board:
United believe that they sufficiently backed Mourinho with £358.7million in the transfer market on 11 players during his time in charge. However, they expected a greater measure of progress within that time-frame.
United bought Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba in a £145.3m spending spree in Mourinho's first summer transfer window in 2016 and shelling another £140.9m on Victor Lindelof, Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic later in the year. That figure plummeted to £73.2m in the 2018 transfer window and ended without two of Mourinho's priority targets, which caused considerable unrest between the manager and the board. These figures clearly show that the club backed away at the time when others were spending big.
Look at Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea; they are strong this season only because the board backed the manager to get what he wants. Did this United board back Mourinho in the way they should have? Afraid to say the answer is a big no.
Mourinho wanted to upgrade the club’s defence this year and the reason is clear why he wanted to bring either Jerome Boateng or Toby Alderweireld or both, but the board asked him to continue with the set of defenders he already had. As a result, the team has so far conceded 29 goals in 17 matches this season. Out of a current lot of defenders- Rojo, Jones and Valencia were injured for the most part of the current ongoing season. Aga
“Undermining Jose on the eve of the season on why he couldn’t sign those centre-backs - who is qualified in that football club to tell Mourinho he cannot get them?”, Gary Neville said during an interview with Sky Sports.
Moreover, he sported Nemanja Matic and Scott Mctominay alongside Ashley Young and Luke Shaw in the heart of defence against a fairly depleted Southampton and had no one to look to except for the strikers if he wanted either of them out of the game. This shows that the team is lagging behind in depth in comparison to the teams who are enjoying the top spots on the table.
Lack of Depth:
A good team is said to be a champion side when there are more than two players for a single position. Pep Guardiola’s side lacked such a feature in his first season but he went up to the board, told them he needed four defenders and then they backed him the next season in such a way that the team is now having at least 3 players fighting for 1 position.
Jurgen Klopp certainly followed the same footsteps this season. He got Joe Gomez to partner Virgil Van Dijk with Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip as the backup. If one considers Arsenal and Chelsea then they have players in abundance who can be used as a substitute.
However, look at Manchester United and find the players who act as backup do so only on paper not on the field as most of them are injured in some way or other and in these conditions, the board not backing him explains where the real problem was.
The final thought:
In 2013, Manchester United saw the departure of two stalwarts of the club in form of Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill. Gary Neville in one of his recent interviews with Sky sports said,
“This is a club that has become almost unrecognisable from the one Sir Alex and Gill left at the top of the mountain and you only have to look at those who have left United since the pair took a step back from the front line to realise that.
Mike Phelan, Rene Meulensteen, Eric Steele, Tony Strudwick, Rob Swire, Warren Joyce, Brian McClair, Paul McGuinness, Derek Langley...all these intelligent figures *got* what it meant to work at United and the standards required.”
Besides these men, there were other factors on the field that added to the misery. The departures at that time - From Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand to Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick dramatically changed the atmosphere of the dressing room.
Of course, Sir Alex inadvertently played his part in that new era by recommending David Moyes in the first place; also it was Moyes who emptied the 'machine room' at Carrington and brought in his own staff.
But this now goes beyond who is on the coaching staff and United are a club lacking direction in so many departments. The situation of sacking Jose Mourinho clearly indicates that there is a lack of proper direction and mindset at the top-level. This sacking would ultimately turn into a cycle that will repeat itself until there's a change in the attitude of the who's who of the club.
Bringing a new manager or a new coaching staff with different ideas is not what is needed to somehow close that gap on Manchester City, who are streets ahead when it comes to recruitment and infrastructure. It is the boardroom which needs a revamp for closing the gap between the two teams.
The former England defender was critical of Ed Woodward, vice-chairman of the club, for failing to deliver the centre-half Mourinho wanted in the summer transfer window, especially after awarding the manager a new contract in January, and says there is an acute lack of leadership at the top of the club.
“It’s difficult running a football club, playing in a team but you have to operate in the right manner. But right now it’s rotten to the core and it has to be coming from the top. The people in the boardroom at this moment in time are nowhere near good enough. They are playing football manager with the biggest club in the world.”
With all this in an account, he further added that the boardroom is “naive” which indeed is the reason for the results United are suffering at the moment.
True to his word, the club might get a new manager but the lack of leadership at the top has created a big difference between the two clubs from Manchester. It won't be wrong in tagging a current lot of officials as a mess. In six years, they have already parted ways with four managers and even if they sign someone to handle this mishap (the team not performing) things do not seem to improve until there is truly a reshuffle done at the very top. A new philosophy, a foundation and a new set of players are needed.
Yes, the players need to leave. As Roy Keane says,
"It's a huge concern going forward. I certainly believe a lot of their players are not good enough to be playing for Manchester United. They're good players but not good enough for Manchester United."
Apt to his words the revamp is required within this group of players as well. The depth is needed and the manager coming to handle this is needed to strike a balance between the board and then the players.
Thus, the real question is: Will the new manager inspire a new life into this Manchester side which has been suffering from a neurotic attack?
